Noetic Norden: assembling and dissembling the art of ‘the north’

The following paper begins to explore the concept of ‘the north ’ (or ‘Norden’) as an organising principle in the fine arts. This supposedly geographically delineable and stylistically identifiable category has been established through a lengthy and ongoing sequence of temporary, travelling exhibitions. The informal series began in 1982 with Brooklyn Museum’s ‘Northern light: realism and symbolism in Scandinavian painting, 1880–1910’. Variations on this regional theme have con-tinued ever since, with the most recent manifestation being ‘A mirror of nature: Nordic landscape painting, 1840–1910’. That these titles feature two similar, but not identical terms to characterise ‘the north ’ – Scandinavian, Nordic – is reveal-ing. So too is the fact that, whilst the earlier of the two included portraits and do-mestic interiors, the latter focused entirely on landscapes. And it is this genre more than any other that is said to be synonymous with the art of ‘the north’. But whilst this might arguably be true of works produced at the end of the nineteenth-century, is there such a thing as ‘Nordic art ’ today? And, if so, what is its style, subject and medium